BuzzFeed is planning an IPO

BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti said in an interview at the Code
Conference on Wednesday that the site is planning on an initial
public offering in the future,
The Guardian reports.

"We’re very focused on building out internationally, we’re very
focused on building out across multiple different platforms,
we’re very focused on building out our video business," Peretti
said at the conference.

"That will give us a diversification … to allow us to build a big
independent company with much more predictability and things that
would allow us to be a public company."

This isn't the first time that BuzzFeed has hinted that an IPO is
on its way.
BuzzFeed President Greg Coleman told AdAge in 2014 that the
company was open to the idea of an IPO, but went on to explain
that the board was focused on building a large media company.

Buzzfeed has 900 employees and is building out a big San
Francisco bureau to increase its tech business news coverage.
Those are significant costs. An IPO would give observers — which
is to say all the companies who run similar, large digital news
businesses, such as Huffington Post, Business Insider, The Daily
Mail and The Guardian — a look at Buzzfeed's financials. An S-1
disclosure with the SEC would answer questions such as how much
revenue Buzzfeed makes, and whether it is profitable or not.